WE Are The Collateral Damage of Technology
Can you recall what the world was like prior to having a smartphone? The peace of not having someone get in touch with you at any moment, work truly being put aside when you arrive home, going to lunch, or out with friends without distractions. People were more present and saved money cause they did not spend it on what may be equivalent to buying a house on cell plans and phones.
This new way of communicating has been around since 1993 and there are currently over 6 billion users and almost 9 million apps that are influencing our daily experiences and life. Smartphones are reprogramming who we are, what we believe, and impacting our wellness every second we are online.
The amount of time we are spending on these devices continues to increase. Prior to the pandemic the average American was spending 3 hours and 30 minutes on their phone. This was a 20-minute increase from the year prior. The time we spend plugged in is predicted to keep up ticking. I am sure a reason the shift happened is that more of our social interactions are taking place on screen, especially as we live through a pandemic.
Some big players like Apple, Google, Instagram, and Facebook have rolled out features for individuals to be mindful of how much time they are spending linked in and people are still getting sucked into the media matrix. The adults are not the only collateral damage to those who reap billions from our screen time.
The minds of our youth are even more impressionable. The alarm should be ringing as half of all youth get a smartphone at the age of 11 which is nearly a 20 percent increase in the last four years. I do not believe it is a coincidence that the number of young people going to a hospital for suicidal thoughts or attempting suicide in the last ten years has doubled.
It may be difficult to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between mental wellness and technology use and I still believe someone needs to raise attention to it. There is an impact on self from all the scrolling. Sleeping patterns are affected and our mental wellness is affected too. This health crisis is not only being seen in our youth’s mental illness, adults wellness continues to decrease with millions of minds affected.
The leading cause of disability in the U.S. for ages 15 to 44.3 is major depressive disorder. The most common mental illness in the US is anxiety, affecting 18% of our population annually. If one pays attention to the data you will see an upward trend over the last decade.
We need to digitally detox - every day, every week, every month because the vortex will consume your life. Shut the notifications off, get an alarm clock that is not your phone, and set notifications for yourself of when you link into you and out of the internet.
Authored by: Future Cain, Senior Linked Inclusion™ Contributor